He is not a programme-maker or a politician, but he must rapidly develop a feel for both disciplines – and the stakes could not be higher

This panel comprises extracts from Letters to Matt Brittin: The New Director-General of the BBC, edited by John Mair and Andrew Beck, and original material

He is one of the most chilling actors around. Yet Matthew Rhys is now playing a Basil Fawlty type in comedy horror Widow’s Bay. He talks about fluffing his James Bond audition, unzipping in Girls – and why he almost jacked in acting to join the army

‘What an absolute twat!” cries Matthew Rhys, clutching his face in both hands. He has just been reminded of a remark he made in 2000, when he was playing the Dustin Hoffman role in the West End stage version of The Graduate. He was 25, not long out of Rada, and was asked if he could imagine being middle-aged like his Mrs Robinson, Kathleen Turner, who was 45 at the time. His response? “Yes – and it’s frightening. I wonder – will I still be acting?”

Perhaps the “frightening” part merits derision. But acting is a precarious business, so no wonder he questioned his career’s potential longevity. “It is precarious,” he says, grateful for the off-ramp. He is wearing a black T-shirt and speaking over video call from the Brooklyn home he shares with the actor Keri Russell, their 10-year-old son and her two teenage children from a previous marriage. “It was after The Graduate that I had my longest stretch out of work. I thought I’d made it, and then I was like, ‘Nope’.” His prospects were so dire back then that he applied to join the army, only to be rejected by a recruiting officer convinced that he was merely researching a role. “I remember him looking down my CV at the list of acting jobs and saying: ‘I’m very confused …’”

Wiltshire town councillor Andrew Edwards, who has large collection of neckwear, is a regular at committee hearings

It was blockbuster viewing for politicos across the country: the livestreamed grilling of Olly Robbins. While the sacked Foreign Office civil servant was billed as the star of the show, for many he was upstaged by a well-dressed man wearing a cravat.

“I’ve got a big collection,” said Andrew Edwards, the scene stealer in question.

People born after 1997 are now the most frequent cinemagoers, defying fears that digital natives would lose interest in the big screen

Rumours about the imminent demise of moviegoing may have been overstated, with 2026 now forecast to be the best year at the global box office since the start of the pandemic. And it is generation Z at the forefront of the cinema revival. According to a US-based survey by Fandango, gen Z are now the most frequent cinemagoers, with 87% saying they have seen at least one film in a cinema in the past 12 months. Millennials are close behind at 82%, followed by gen X at 70% and boomers at 58%. Gen Z also go more often than other cohorts, averaging around seven trips a year.

Gen Z – people born between 1997 and 2012 – grew up with near unlimited streaming and social media as their default entertainment. But after spending their lives in algorithm-driven digital spaces, many are beginning to tire of them. “As the internet becomes ever more pervasive, and in many ways ever more annoying, gen Z are looking for experiences beyond the black mirror,” say Benedict and Hannah Townsend, hosts of the film and TV podcast Talk of the Townsends. What gen Z are looking for is a “third space”: a social environment away from home and work. And for many, the cinema can fill that role.

Before the war on Gaza, the seed of Israel’s strategy of wholesale destruction was planted in a 2006 war on Lebanon. Today, the playbook repeats itself

Shortly after 2pm on 8 April, it seemed that Beirut was hit by an earthquake. Within 10 minutes, multiple apartment buildings were obliterated, leaving in their wake mounds of rubble and shattered glass, pulverized concrete and twisted metal – and hundreds of dead and wounded bodies.

In those minutes, Israel had carried out one of the worst mass killings in Lebanon’s history. Dozens of Israeli warplanes dropped bombs and missiles on 100 targets across a country roughly the size of Connecticut, striking Beirut, the Bekaa valley and southern Lebanon. By the time rescue crews finished digging out mangled remains from the rubble two days later, the Lebanese health ministry’s toll stood at 357 dead and more than 1,200 injured. But even that is not a final accounting of the day’s casualties because health officials were still struggling to identify remains and conduct DNA tests.

As a career-spanning documentary hits cinemas and the band eye two nights at Knebworth, they revisit their path from pubs to stadiums – but how did they get through their crisis-filled 1990s?

When I ask Iron Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris about the fact his band have lasted for more than half a century, he sounds bewildered, as if he’s put something down then forgotten where he’s left it. “It’s gone so quick. You go on tour for a few months and it seems to fly, but so much happens. Our whole career is an extension of that – for 50 years.”

He’s looking back on how he steered one of the most influential – and deeply idiosyncratic – British bands in history. Catapulted to the premier league of 80s metal on the back of galloping, theatrical, multi-platinum LPs including The Number of the Beast, Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Iron Maiden not only survived the mid-90s slump that befell many metal bands, but got even more heavy and ambitious.

Leaked report suggested the US could review its position on the British claim to the territory after lack of support in Iran war

Downing Street has hit back at reports suggesting the US could reconsider its position over the UK’s claim to the Falkland Islands because the UK did not do enough to assist the American bombing of Iran was leaked.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The UK position is clear and isn’t going to change … It’s a longstanding one. It’s an unchanged one, and it will remain the case.”

US president orders navy to ‘shoot and kill’ boats laying mines in Hormuz and claims ‘total control’ over the strait

The EU’s foreign chief has said that talks with Iran should include nuclear experts otherwise “we will end up with a more dangerous Iran.”

Speaking on Friday ahead of an informal summit of EU leaders in Cyprus, EU’s foreign chief Kaja Kallas said: “If the talks are only about the nuclear and there are no nuclear experts around the table, then we will end up with an agreement that is weaker than the JCPOA was.”

Top commander fired after wife of one malnourished soldier posted shocking images on social media

Ukraine’s defence ministry has fired a top commander after photos emerged of a group of emaciated soldiers who have been left on the frontline for months without proper food and water.

The scandal erupted after the wife of one of the soldiers, Anastasiia Silchuk, posted the images on social media. The four men appeared to be pale and visibly malnourished, with prominent ribcages and thin arms.

Amjad Youssef is one of most-wanted fugitives in relation to slaughter of estimated 288 civilians under Assad

A Syrian former regime official suspected of leading a notorious civilian massacre revealed by the Guardian – and who became one of the country’s most-wanted fugitives after the fall of Bashar al-Assad – has been arrested by security forces, Syria’s interior ministry announced.

Amjad Youssef was captured in the countryside about 30 miles (50km) outside the city of Hama and had “been taken into custody following a carefully executed security operation”, the interior minister, Anas Khattab, said in a social media post on Friday.